he portrays it at a human environment, which i think is part of the attraction, and he brings his own personal experiences to that. so i think that's a good place to start, about how you came to write the book, brian, and we'll go from there. >> the villain is over there. my editor. he encouraged me. this book took a long time to jestitae. it began when i visited a former fishing port in northern denmark and there was an artist there who painted the their north sea fishermen and he had painting of a group of fisherman on shore, watching a fishing boat offshore trying to weather a point, and title of the painting was, will he make the point? but the painting itself is memorable for one thing alone, and it is the weather-beaten faces of these fishermen. the sea was literally etched into their faces. and it was then i think i realized tsailors of this sort were people apart and they had knowledge of the ocean that average people don't have. and from there this morphed into the idea of writing a book about early sea-faring, not galleons or christopher columbus or lord nelson or anything l